There were 3,843 migrants and
refugees including 181 unaccompanied minors in the Lampedusa
hotspot mid Sunday afternoon following the transfer of 568
people off the island by passenger ferry to Porto Empedocle
earlier in the day.
In the evening, two groups of 70 people each are expected to be
transferred by military aircraft to Pratica di Mare near Rome
and Pisa in Tuscany.
There are also plans to transfer a group of about 250 people
(not 100 as originally stated) to Porto Empedocle by ferry.
Early on Sunday there were nearly 4,300 people in the temporary
reception centre in Contrada Imbriacola following record
arrivals on Friday and Saturday.
Meanwhile, on Sunday a finance police patrol boat intervened to
rescue a group of 44 people from the island of Lampione west of
Lampedusa.
The refugees and migrants, from Syria and Egypt and including
three women and six minors, said they had departed from Abu
Kammash in Libya at 8pm last Friday and that they had paid 3,000
dollars each for the journey.
The group was disembarked on Lampedusa, taking to 252 the total
number of people to have arrived so far on the island in five
separate landings on Sunday.
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